...these are varied half-ideas catching dust in my files. Sadly I can't find enough time and/or energy to finish them. And therefore, I offer these bits to anyone willing to work on them. If you join this "list" please supply at least a few things. One-liners are (mostly) not accepted. On the other hand, somewhat complete ideas may fare better in the Ideas section on the main page.

Citadel Ideas:

- Create a HOW-TO for Powerful Magical Items (especially for people that like to create them)

- Consider finding archeological info on Ancient Civilisations(tm), ie how long it takes for structures to fall apart, bodies to rot, etc. So what stays behind after 10/100/1000 years? - Pariah is working on it. Help would be useful.

- Create a list on Primitive Cultures - barbarians, natives, primitives... Stone Age to Bronze Age

Magical Ideas:

- a school of magic based on a flesh-penetrating touch - contains healing applications, as well as nasty hand-to-hand combat techniques.

- what if all magical effects must be performed with at least two people (say holding hands or whatever). Always. Also true for priestly magic. (Developed a bit below.)

Itemised:

- The Generals sword - if someone is defeated in a fair fight, his opinion of the sword wielder rises. May "create" allies, friends, or at least make sure the enemy won't backstab the wielder, once he turns his back to him.

- A potent artifact, possibly of godly origin - the mighty hammer covered with runes, able to create mighty magical weapons, or hammer metals not otherwise workable. Problems: 1. it is _ quite_ intelligent, and talkative2. until it is really persuaded of the need to work, it is soft as rubber

- A spider-like web, artificial, immune to fire but not to cold. (surprise)

- An item offering useful rat-powers in exchange for becoming more and more rat-like.

- A Drop Of Fate (potion) - allows imbiber to see the oft-hidden connections between people, things and ideas, and discover the truth meaning of all. Very useful for criminal investigations for instance; overuse leads to insanity as expected.

NPCs: - a tooth collector (Hey this has been made!) - a Sin Eater - the sweeper of dreams (from a novel by Neil Gaiman, I think) - the spirit of refuse of a town, or cities in general; refuse means the trash, as the people - third-man: artist, makes symbols for shops for trade, is well informed on all the shops in town and can tell where can be found what - for a little fee. - mythic NPC, lycantrope, helped to institute better and somewhat official relations between weres and normals, one of the few known by name to the outside world

Lifeform: - the tiny things floating inside of the eye.

- the plant that grows and gets ripe in winter (magic can do)

Location: - A city where people of various stations live on different floors. The higher floors have their own 'roads' (bridges) connecting them. Historical reasons (defense). (Used?)

- A location where everything was turned into stone. There is a simple peasant house, with animals and all, fleeing people, etc. All are like perfect statues... it's just they look too real. (Used as a dream)

- Dungeon: The greatest tree in the woods has a secret, there is a dungeon under it made from the intricate web of roots. What creatures could reside here? What secrets will the PCs uncover?

Random Philosophical Bits/Chrome:

- "Revenge is Good" - it is your duty to get even, always, in the name of cosmic balance

- Base a belief on the thought of a "Liquid Soul"

- Organisation/cult? Vision of own death, that can be taken or refused. Taken = great glory and death, not taken = unsure fate.

- A creator god afraid of his own creation - mortals, for example.

- Temples, unless devoted to only one god, must have altars/sacred places for all deities, including the darker ones. Reason dictates to hide such places from the public view; thus the locked doors and alcoves obstructed by statues, furniture, etc. While paid attention and brought offerings at special events, they are most of the year empty and unwatched, so excellent hiding/meeting places for some people unafraid of the gods... or at least hoping to pass unnoticed.

- The power of a spirit in the afterlife depends on their deeds made while alive; more powerful the bigger the influence on the world (the more of the world was marked by this soul...). Its 'sphere of influence' depends on past deeds, too. Thus a king may find himself a very powerful spirit, or a low creature compared to his chief advisor.

- Cultural/artistic bit: people and creatures of greater importance have a larger shadow, as related to body size

- Cultural chrome: all people have their graves prepared while they are already alive.

- Punishment: aside from jailing, people will have their lifeforce drained for serious offenses, aging for years, but mostly not to death. The lifeforce may be used for healing others or simply 'discarded'.One day for a scratch.Three weeks for a wound.One year for a limb.Your life for my tomb.(children's rhyme)

Group/...

A civilisation: building large out of necessity, as they lived during a short ice age. Each town was self-sufficient as possible, only necessity was wood, plus a little hunting (there were large animals back then...). Trade was limited (mostly fish, metals, tools, few luxuries). New towns usually arised through conflicts - some people are chased/split off, and either have founded a new place or die.

A tribe, where alcohol played a similar role as tobacco to the Indians. As mead (the only sort of booze they knew) was very rare, they used it mainly for ceremonial purposes. Its ability to make people feel relaxed, and to change their state of mind (so lying became harder), made it the prime choice at any negotiations.

After meeting a more advanced culture with lots of alcohol of many types, and the skill to produce it, the tribe fell on hard times as all the proud warriors and chieftains fell prey to alcoholism, and heavy drinking became the norm.

- they could be a desperate band of vagabonds people laugh at, indeed barbarians - they could have sold their ancestral lands, and found themselves without a home, without skilled hunters and few supplies - or the whole tribe has hidden in tall mountains, where it awaits the day when they loose their addiction... until then, they are said to hunt down and slay anyone who they even suspect of having alcohol - or whatever

The Power of Litany - a secret group that concentrates on creating alarming and apocalyptic ideas and movements, to manipulate public opinions and achieve some evil goals. Bad news sells better. (Used)

As for the creator scared of own creation, I was always wondering where do those allmighty beings vanish after creating yet another RPG world. Perhaps, being close to all-knowing, it knows those tiny humanoids will eventually become even more powerful than it, and will probably destroy it... the ultimate irony if the creator is really the stereotypical pure goodness, that left its creations the freedom of choice.

Terry Pratchett wrote a smallish character in one of his books, I believe it was "The Last Continent". The character was a god, but he was rather akin to the nutty professor or Dr Brainard in the movie "Flubber"(just watched it the other day; amazing the memories you get into when watching childhood movies). Anyway, this god, was in the process of creating the world, it was back in the past of Discworld and he hadn't quite completed everything yet. For one thing, he couldn't figure out how to get the animals and plants to create more of themselves, until one of the wizards decided to fill him in with a few of the details, which he promptly took into account, creating the act of mating. Your comment about the god who was afraid of his own creation made me think of this character.

I like the idea of magic requiring two people. As a matter of fact, I think a whole new arrangement of magic could be made from that thought.

Imagine that magic requires two people, however they don't have to be of the same school of magic. Examples!

A Clerical mage merges power with an Elemental Fire mage. Using this combination, they are able to cauterise wounds. Now, two clerics together couldn't do that as they don't have the power of heat, and two fire mages together couldn't do that, as without the healing direction of the cleric magic, their flames would be uncontrollable and do more damage.

A guild dedicated to building constructs could be made, and filled with earth and spirit mages who link to give spirit and life to lumps of cold earth. Perhaps somewhere, Spirit and fire mages have learned the secret of how to create fire elementals.

Now, I imagine that each school will be taught different views and values. It would be interesting to see a death mage try to convince a spirit mage to merge powers and make the undead.

A Fire and Water mage creating flames which give frostbite instead of burns, or form liquid fire.

And now I see an acadamy of magic; The first five years are spent learning the chosen school with people of your same talents. The next three years are spent mingling with those of the other schools, learning how to combine their powers to make the most out of them. And imagine the inventive ways your PC's could use combinations of magic to get out of or into situations. - As a matter of fact, you could begin your roleplay with the PC's starting as first-year academics in this place. Have them not know of each other, and not know much about how the magic works. Have the roleplay span over the eight years of their studies (with perhaps a few side-plots) and then into the real world. I can see how those studying death-magic would stay to themselves, bieng the 'scheming, prank-playing and potentially dangerous' bunch of the school.

Anyways. The first hurdle would be to decide which schools of magic were available. Another hurdle would be to actually write out a whole bunch of spells and such which two linked people can cast. Or perhaps write out some common/base spells, but then leave the whole school open for PC's to try out - the GM can decide whether the spell would work or not. A third hurdle would be to write out Different schools attitudes, religions, mannerisms and social standing with the other schools. I can see that the most powerful and awkward combinations would be between two casts who are naturally at opposite ends (such as life and death, body and mind, fire and water)

Social group: like to be servants, see themselves as the stronger ones

Society bit, from an "evil" society: (or at least a harsh one)A justice system, where it is easily possible to be convicted without any actual guilt or evidence - which is seen as just, as those, who cannot defend themselves, cannot survive anyway. But falsely accusing people is tricky, as proven ill intent can easily turn against the accuser. Judges are old, honorable warriors that haven proven themselves as trustworthy. These hard men oversee the courts, and will not be fooled by trickery of either side of the process.

World Background or Mythology: There are two groups of powers, related to mortals: those on the 'positive', and on the 'negative' side, facing towards them, or outwards from them, giving them, or taking from them. Two sides, so simple, and yet so hard to see through for the mortals... for much depends on what they give, and what they take, with what they aid, and what they hinder. Depending on this, and what the people think about it, they are called good, or evil, demons, and gods, and angels, and spirits of many kinds.

Some give pain, some give happiness. Some will help your life, some will help with your self-destruction. Some take your luck or property, and some take away the suffering. There is no clearly defined good, nor evil in this world.

Location/Strange Place: a place where one can embrace the absolute truth, and can only speak the truth; however, for the one who touches it will be all of the lies they said during their life immediately obvious to the people that know of them... so one should think twice before swearing on it. There were even sickos that have done this on purpose, hurting many in the process.

Strange Place: a large pond, where things mirrored are not the same as in reality (and make it something better than this sounds, duh)

City Image or Neighbourhood or Village: everything is kept clean with care and desperation. Bad things are supposed to happen when everything isn't clean. (Monsters? Curse? Superstition?)

Lifeforms:

Unique, an "oracle" - a crystalline lifeform, that happens to react on air vibrations, like voice. For some reason, it is stimulated by the complex patters of human speech, and can respond even, so it "likes to talk". It needs to be said that is without any intelligence, it still remembers all the 'conversations'.

It is really a glorified ELIZA, that has picked up over the millenia quite a vocabulary - and it is likely to switch the language at a whim, or combine words together that make no sense. Definitely an Oracle you need to see for a good prophecy. Put into a suitably hard-to-reach place (say a cave on the top of a great mountain), and there you go!

Plotlocation:a field of wind generators, that generate power, but also slowly drain the life force out of living creatures. Describe the strange happenings and how people and animals avoid it, come up with three explanations, slap the 'Tales of Adventure' tag on it, done. Done.

Cyber-implant: controls the output of taste buds, so one can choose the food to taste in any way desired. Typically used by astronauts and others with boring food. (See below.)

Dungeon-style: ancient civilization of great wealth and power, when kings were not afraid of anything... besides dragons. Their treasuries therefore dubbed as anti-dragon-shelters, and the traps were appropriate. Today are most already looted, but the danger stays.

Group detail: a people, that only talk nice of others (because, say, it would attract evil spirits, etc.). Enjoy listing their polite insults, and daily communication. (The truly black sheep will not be talked about at all.)

Scroll of cultural and ethnic groups modifiers: those little pieces of colour that will flesh out your culture in a given locale. So you'd take a large group, pick X modifiers, and you'd have the area populated by distinct sub-groups that belong to it.

Star probe: a tried simple design, dozens or hundreds are launched when cartographing a new solar system (e.g. before settling in). They map out the location, note the trajectories of all important objects, and do a general sweep of the place. Later they can serve for navigation or communication, or are scrounged by some low souls for spare parts. May be even used for espionage.

Religion/chrome: members of a religion/sect like to save lives of others, as they believe their souls will serve them in the afterlife for one lifetime. They are very helpful even afterwards, because a long life of their charge means they will perform more service later.

Lifeform/NPC: seeing http://youtube.com/watch?v=Zo52T7uKOJU Who wants to live forever from good ole Queen, how about a creature with wings composed of many small separated flames, like from candles?

Lifeform - Space: a species with an 'external' conscience - it is able to adapt their thought structure from other creatures around; is borderline sentient when alone, they can rise to greatness when with the right visitors

Lifeform - Plant: A healing herb that grows on cemeteries, and is grown specifically there. (Linkable to this.)

Lifeform/NPC/Location: In a war long ago, a place was burned down, the earth salted and despoiled, so that nothing would grow and prosper there ever again... what remained was a spirit of nature, mutilated by this act... even now it lurks in the wasteland, and it has very little love for those who invaded this land - or their descendants. A beast to confront when trying to get through its land, or to seek old wisdom from.

Item - Cybernetic implant: "wetware" / "godware" upgrade - a serious refurbishing of the mental functions of a brain; something even the most 'enhanced' people of the future rarely dare. It improves the mental capacities, makes thinking easier to get rid of the influences of emotions, and generally improves the efficiency... in some jobs. On the downside, those who are not driven insane or just die become less creative and strangely less human. This is a _very_ experimental procedure, not just a plugin.

Items - Scroll: Someone of you cyberpunkers could do one for those cyber-implants, take the two from here, add a few of your own, some attractive intro, and you've got it. - Used.

Scroll: popular ways for foretelling of the future, as a cultural insight and chrome

- king Xerxes has indicted the sea to 300 whip-lashes for collapsing his bridge... make the same, and insert a tsunami - perfect revenge of an angered sea god

- aliens/another race in favor of sharp, angular features, since they signify youth and freshness - as a resultthey consider humans ugly and old

- a disease/fungus/something, that can be only cured by getting drunk

- The permanent and more powerful magical items have to be powered by a black square thingy... actually a solar cell. It can be connected to the sun-god or whatever; the only condition for its use is it must be kept in sunlight to recharge (or to work at all for more powerful items). As these leftovers from an ancient civilization are rare, they are pretty expensive. They are also not indestructible.(This meld of magic and technology requires a fitting background for the world they are in.)

- society bit: a semi-anarchistic society, where personal identity is a matter of personal choice. People can be considered 'real' according to what they do (and it is possible to have several identities, even maintain some semblance of reality with several of them) - attached: an Identity Corp. - for selling IDs in a society that allows people to have more

- Doctor Washburn - meta NPC: able to smell health and more

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On the Road, With the Winds, To the Stars

"A planet is the cradle of every civilization, but shouldn't we leave the cradle, when we grow up?"

Many races travel the depths of space, for trade, research or war, but few consider the journey an end of its own. The Remadan underwant this transformation, and most of them live now permanently in space, in giant colonies that are always on the move, surrounded by many smaller vessels that move more or less freely around. One large group of this kind works much like a nation on a planet: providing identity and local colour. Contacts between various "nations" of their kind persists, conflicts are extremely rare due to the distances involved. Skirmishes with other races happen more often, but sometimes aliens join them as well.

Many were the adventures of the brave crew of Enterprise, the captain and his trusted lieutenants. But what was happening, while they were asleep? The universe never lacks in surprises, after all. Unfortunately, the Starfleet trusts not all of its personnel equally. It would appear, that boredom is your fate.

This is the whole gaming background for a one-off game. You can take it and work it out some more, or, heck, create a scroll for such adventures. Mood: from lighthearted to downright silly... or you could try a more dark variant.

Elaborating on the silly part:Rule 1: The captain must never knowAll other rules ("Everything must look normal in the morning", "Most of the crew must survive") are derivative of this one.

Oh, I really like the idea of night shift aboard the Enterprise, and especially the part about the Captain Must Never Know. (Which, when you consider some of the craziness that most of the captians of starships named Enterprise get up to, makes one wonder what might be going on that they don't want the captain to know.) And if all else fails, Tribbles are always good for chaos.

Oh, I really like the idea of night shift aboard the Enterprise, and especially the part about the Captain Must Never Know. (Which, when you consider some of the craziness that most of the captians of starships named Enterprise get up to, makes one wonder what might be going on that they don't want the captain to know.) And if all else fails, Tribbles are always good for chaos.

... I want to play this game now.

There might be also a shady deal or two the Federation shouldn't know about. But anyway: game license granted.

- seen a Bollywood movie, "Kaal", kinda weird, but liked the idea of a guide, that just happened to 1. warn his charges of a danger 2. see to it that someone falls for it and 3. say "I warned you but no one ever listens to me." Oh, and did I mention that it is a ghost, and basically everybody dies there? Give your stray heroes a tragically deceased vengeful ghost as a guide and let the fun begin.

- the inhabitants of a village freeze down for the night, literally, and melt back to life in the morning, unaware of anything unusual.

- a group of former mercenaries, who were captured in an unsuccessful raid (see also http://www.strolen.com/guild/index.php/topic,4566.0.html). Defeated by better troops, they were castrated as a punishment for their misdeeds. Released into the wilds with only a few rags on their backs, they have sworn revenge on all who would harm them. Today they are bandits, ambushing merchants and the poor farmers that dare to cross their road. Far from their lofty soldiering days, they have lost what little they had in discipline, their weapon skill is also neglected. They make this up with dirty tricks.

But their revenge is not forgotten. Anyone they identify as having anything common with their enemies, may be brutalized or even killed. The chance to kill their former superiors, or one of the enemy troops from before would make them risk their lives. Until then, they will put most of their spoils into heavy drinking and drugs, with a conspicuous absence of women.

Plot:

- the Supergirl virus - highly infective, it enhances certain biological tendencies to conceive a child of a certain gender. Utterly harmless, a significant part of the population was hit before its effect manifested: boys were not born anymore. Social sci-fi.

- Law of Ten: Once upon a time, two cultures or races met, so different, that they were utterly disgusting to each other. Normally this would mean war. Perhaps there was one. And yet, they have found common interests. To prevent misunderstandings, but allow trade and diplomacy to function, only ten people from one side may visit the other. Now if one side would need something special to perform on the other side (espionage, detective work, etc.), they would have to resort to a small compact group to do it - like the PCs. They'd be in a completely alien culture with little support, noticed by everyone and sworn to keep good diplomatic relations at all cost.

Location:

- The Borrowed Temple - where priests of different gods take turns administering it; and you know that destroying symbols of gods is dangerous business, so everybody is trying to build around and obscure the stuff of others while enhancing their own.

- If it is quiet in Huurun, then you are surely dead.

- The place, where the candle burns.

Group/Society

- A country/society/planet, where there is a permanent ruling party and a permanent opposition, both affixed as institutions. Belonging to either will confer certain privileges and duties. How would that look like?

- Priesthood of Web - started as a joke, it soon found devoted followers. After all, doesn't the Internet change all humanity? It brings about economical wellbeing, it saves many, and costs some their soul. Like fire, it is a beneficial power, that can harm as easily. It simplifies the way to good things and bad things. The priests strive for perfection in their search capabilities, for knowledge shouldn't be lost, as the greatest wealth humanity has. They make excellent moderators and can bring attention to many a political discussion on how to regulate the web. They say it can regulate itself if allowed to. (Possibly include to http://strolen.com/viewing/Philosophies_of_the_future)

- a gerontocratic society, where the rewards/welfare rise progressively with age. The young are left to themselves, the truly old can support entire clans around them, which is alright as it leads to the proliferation of the right genes.

Lifeforms: - Demons are creatures from another dimension, often misshapen, rarely can be mistaken for humans. They serve wizards to do their bidding... sounds familiar? Okay, then a change: they desperately long to return home and wizards are their only hope to ever come back.

- for some truly odd munchkinous location: the Nano Spider. It somehow creates webs out of nanofilament wire... anything touching them may be cut into tiny parts.

- the Balloon Plant - genetically engineered, supplied with gas and some basic nutrients it can grow inflated balloons in less than a minute. Many shopkeepers like to keep one at their counter to hand them out to customers.

- Dark Hound - a genemodified and enhanced dog to guard some of the many areas sensitive to robbery or espionage. It is unknown how smart they really are, but they are efficient. (Shadowrun.)

---

The Mirror Of One Thousand Demons: Ages ago, a sorcerer of unrivaled power summoned a thousand demons. He closed them into a great mirror, frozen in time, to release them at will to aid in his invasion, and cause untold mayhem and destruction (or maybe, he made a deal to have them released on command, who knows). As it happens to those, that plan too much, he was killed prematurely.

But the mirror could not be destroyed, not without releasing all demons at once. Only the ritual to release one demon at a time was preserved.

The hero king of his time made a lasting decision... he didn't hide it or bury under tons of earth. He kept the mirror.

From then on, every king would have to release and kill one demon to prove he is worthy of his crown.

The ritual has changed over the centuries. Today, the future king may be aided by his 'friends', most are reasonable enough to bring tough bodyguards along. To not waste manpower, as an army detail must be close at all times, the mirror is opened more often. Prisoners condemned to death are allowed a fight for their lives. Some kings even choose to let out another demon before important decisions or battles: if it is easy to defeat the creature, all will go well.

And there are still hundreds of demons inside...

---

30 Cyberspace Lifeforms

Master of Checksums - an anti-virus mutated beyond recognition, it crawls the net and creates the checksums of everything, every program, piece of data or actor it comes across. Its straightforward functionality makes it curiously immune to most detection techniques, so it keeps on traveling and creating checksums. Some say it has cataloged most of the Internet... too bad nobody can get the right pieces of information out of it.

Lurker - usually hides in static background images and wallpapers, pictures of lands and of course naked starlets. It waits until somebody concentrates on it, then it usually starts to wiggle just a tiny part... and then jumps right on you, baring its HUGE teeth! It is completely harmless, a favorite toy of script-kiddies and spammers.

The Protector - looks to be another protecting tool gone wild, this limited AI crawls the web and looks for known defects, backdoors and weaknesses. It attempts to contact the owners and marks the offending parts with a certain iridescent purple color, that is hard to copy or emulate. Since it often updates its knowledge base, it is a good idea to keep an eye out for its marks - there are thousands of spiders following it in search of opportunities. There have been already several hunts and literal battles organized to take it out, but the Protector was apparently fed with the knowledge of many security measures by the hackers that use it. So it is still out there... watch out.

The most chilling version of the god afraid of his creation has to be "Evensong" by Lester del Rey, in the _Dangerous Visions_ anthology from the late sixties, edited by Harlan Ellison. A powerful alien, held prisoner by creatures he once uplifted, bides his time until he can break free from his bonds, only to find that his mad dash of an "escape" has led him back to the original planet, where he first met his captors. Soon enough he is recaptured--the very bushes move aside to reveal him to his pursuers--and to his plaintive "Why? I am God.", his captor replies, "I am Man."

Logged

--Charles Darwin? He was my grandfather. Oh, *that* Charles. We share a common ancestor.